Monday, March 31, 2014

It seems that after spending a few days apart while her owner was on a business trip, Moo the cat was ready to be reunited. As soon as she hears the door open, the little feline starts meowing instantly and shoots down the stairs to the door, blissfully snuggling her owner’s leg and cooing as he pets her. (Requires sound for full charm.)

Friday, March 28, 2014

The hammerhead shark and kayaker showdown on Sunday was captured on video by the kayaker’s head-mounted camera and includes some underwater images of the hammerhead shark. Since 22-year-old kayaker Adam Fisk was concerned about the battery life of the camera, he only captured about six minutes of the two-hour ride, according to a March 27, The Palm Beach Post report.http://tinyurl.com/ly74s4r

Thursday, March 27, 2014

We Americans are keepers of many things -- in this particular matter, I can't bring myself to use the word "own" -- toasters that sear the image of Jesus on our bread and ticket stubs from Abba concerts, not to mention kangaroos, lemurs, muntjac deer, potbellied pigs, lions, capuchin monkeys, cobras, pythons, and white tigers. Exotic animals were in the news here in Ventura County last week, the Ventura County Planning Commission denying exotic animal trainer Irena Hauser's application to house up to five white tigers in Deer Creek Canyon, an unincorporated residential community in the Santa Monica Mountains north of Malibu.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Lawmakers in Rio de Janeiro, where plastic surgery is all the rage, have approved draft legislation banning cosmetic surgery for dogs and cats, Brazilian media said Wednesday. Conservative lawmaker Graca Pereira is behind the move to ban procedures such as tail docking -- the cutting off of part of an animal's tail -- and removal of cat claws, as well as ear cropping for dogs. Last July, Brazil's national council of veterinary medicine published a resolution in its official journal urging such procedures be made illegal and that vets performing them be struck off the register.http://tinyurl.com/okde45c

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Twelve years ago on June 11, 2001, the No Kill sheltering movement went from the theoretical to the real. As I drove into the parking lot for the first time as the head of the open admission animal control shelter in Tompkins County, New York, an agency which took in all animals for the 10 towns and cities that made up the County, I was met at the front door by a truck driver with five kittens he didn't want. http://tinyurl.com/mrwy8rb-Igor Purlantov

Monday, March 24, 2014

An elderly couple who left their 13 ½ year old Dachshund tied outside of the Baldwin Park Animal Shelter near Los Angeles with a note asking for him to put to sleep because they could not afford to care for him will be reunited with the dog. The heartbreaking note reads, "Our dog is 13 1/2 years old he is sick starting yesterday with bloody stools, vomiting. Had a skin disease for a few years. We are both seniors, sick with no money. We cannot pay for vet bills, or to put him to sleep. He has never been away from us in all those years, he cannot function without us, please put him to sleep."

Friday, March 21, 2014

During a night dive last January at Gadren Eel Cove in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii; a bottlenose dolphin caught in a fishing line approached scuba diver Keller Laros for help. The dolphin’s left pectoral fin was stuck, wrapped around fishing line with a hook embedded into its body. Laros, who was equipped with scissors, was able to free his fellow mammal and the amazing rescue was caught on film by Martina Wing.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

New Hampshire is the latest of a growing number of US states to draft legislation that would give victims of domestic violence the right to ask a judge to award them custody of their pet. The Bill, which was before the state's lower house on Wednesday, would extend the protection already offered to human victims of domestic violence to household animals. According to the National Link Coalition, which has carried out extensive research on the mistreatment of animals, pet abuse should not be considered as an isolated incident but as a warning that other members of the household are in danger.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Alex Greenshpun is a photographer from Israel who has gained renown for her amazing photography of nature, pets and people. She has especially become known for her ability to successfully capture the expression and personality of companion animals, often photographing rescue animals searching for homes.http://tinyurl.com/q7bbnfv

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Wild animals see overhead power cables in remote regions of the countryside as disturbing lines of flashing lights, which could explain why many species avoid electricity pylons to the point where their natural territories become seriously fragmented, scientists said. A study of wild reindeer in Norway has shown that they can see overhead power lines in the dark because their eyes are sensitive to the flashes of ultraviolet light which are invisible to the human eye but are constantly being emitted by high-voltage electrical transmission, the researchers said.http://tinyurl.com/m7f6lqr

Monday, March 17, 2014

Move over, Lil Bub. We’ve found our next feline fascination: Jarvis the cross-eyed cat. While it’s hard not to fall for the dopey-looking 5-year-old, whose full name is Jarvis P. Weasley, that wasn’t always the case.At just 4 months old, the cat was abandoned on the side of a road in Oakland, Calif., reports the Daily Mail. Luckily for Jarvis, he ended up at Saving Grace Rescue, where cat lover Daria Kelly was volunteering. The good Samaritan took him in and nursed him back to health.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Sandy the dog "muttbombed" celebrities like Bradley Cooper, Ellen DeGeneres and Brad Pitt as they posed at the Oscars for the now-famous star-studded selfie. That digitally tweaked version of the most retweeted photo ever is a Texas animal rescue's bet that combining cuddly canines and Hollywood stars will entice more social media users to adopt needy pets.http://tinyurl.com/mthowt3

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Grumpy Cat sat on the Iron Throne once. It was terrible. The world's most famous grouchy kitty conquered Austin and Westeros this week. Grumpy visited the Game of Thrones exhibit at SXSW on Monday and took her rightful place on the Iron Throne. Queen of Dragons, bequeath your crown to the Queen of the Internet.Grumpy Cat's banner man (read: agent) gave Mashable an exclusive first look at her Iron Throne rule. Terror and hairballs will rain down upon you, Lannisters.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Wild elephants can distinguish between human languages, and they can tell whether a voice comes from a man, woman or boy, a new study says. That's what researchers found when they played recordings of people for elephants in Kenya. Scientists say this is an advanced thinking skill that other animals haven't shown. It lets elephants figure out who is a threat and who isn't. The result shows that while humans are studying elephants, theclever animalsare also studying people and drawing on their famed powers of memory, said study author Karen McComb.http://tinyurl.com/ptgoxq4

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Zawadi Mungu, a 500-pound lion, met his triplets for the first time a few days ago at the Predators of the Serengeti habitat in the Oregon Zoo in Portland, and at first the king of the jungle acted like an old grump. Six-month-old lion cubs Kamali, Zalika, and Angalia were full of playful energy and were eager to meet their father, who didn’t want to be bothered, or so it seemed. Making sure the lion cubs knew his role as boss of the family, Zawadi Mungu let out several roars, one of which humorously knocked a lion cub off a log, as you can see in the video above.

Monday, March 10, 2014

The cries of outrage from much of the world about Japan's recent dolphin slaughter offers insight into two key aspects of our modern world. The first is that we are increasingly a planet of animal lovers -- people who rightly abhor the type of violence and bloodshed being perpetrated against these intelligent animals off the shores of Japan. The second, however, is a bit more sobering: this incident highlights the vast chasm between how we say we feel about animals and how we actually act toward them ourselves.http://tinyurl.com/kmgrawd

Thursday, March 6, 2014

A 12-year-old girl kidnapped by a group of seven men in the Ethiopian city of Bita Genet was found several days after her abduction, safe under the watchful eyes of three lions. Not only were the lions guarding her, they allegedly chased off her captors. The girl was reportedly abducted by the seven men with the idea that she would be forced into marrying one of the them. According to the United Nations, about 70 percent of the marriages taking place in Ethiopia are the result of similar kidnappings. And nearly 100 percent of those abduction-marriages are not thwarted by kindly wildlife.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The former handler of the first military dog adopted by the NYPD is hoping to reunite with his long-lost war buddy after spotting the pooch’s mug in The Post. Retired Army vet Brian Connelly, who served with bomb-sniffing pooch Cezar in Afghanistan, was elated when he recognized his old pal’s picture in a Feb. 21 Post story. “I just knew it was Cezar,” Connelly said. “The way his look was veering off [in the photo], it looked like he was going to go after something. He’s a funny dog. He likes to stalk things . . . He would crouch down like a tiger and go after it.”http://tinyurl.com/np8lnh7

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

A talking parrot has helped Indian police crack an intriguing murder mystery and led the cops to arrest the killer. In the western Indian city of Agra in Uttar Pradesh state, a 45-year-old woman and her pet dog were found murdered at her residence on 20 February. The victim, Neelam Sharma, was the wife of Vijay Sharma, the editor of a Hindi daily. The city police had been baffled by the murder mystery till Neelam's husband got a clue from the parrot, which showed a change in behaviour whenever a relative, Vijay's nephew Ashutosh, visited the house after the incident.http://tinyurl.com/pzy7e9z

Monday, March 3, 2014

A family of wild beavers has been seen in the England countryside in what is believed to be the first sighting of its kind in up to 500 years. Three European beavers (Castor fiber), believed to be adults,have been filmed together on the River Otter in east Devon and can be seen gnawing at the base of trees, grooming themselves and playing together. Experts said the sighting was "highly significant" as it strongly suggested a small breeding population of beavers now existed outside captivity.